Grimoire Crusade
by the8bitwriter
Summary: Before Nier, Kaine, and Emil, there were the Crusaders - a group of individuals that fought back against the Legion that swarmed over the world. Follow their story as they wage a continuous war, unaware of the futility of their actions.
1. Prologue

_Writer's note: Hello everyone, and welcome to_ Grimoire Crusade, _a fanfiction I'm writing that takes place between Ending E of Drakengard and the beginning of Nier. If you've read "Grimoire Nier," a translated document from Japan, you'll see a timeline of what happens between Drakengard and Nier, but a lot of it is left up to interpretation. As a way to practice my writing, I figured I'd translate those events into a novel-esque format._

As this will mostly be done for practice, expect errors and the like. Right now I have one beta reader who'll be helping me out before I post, so the quality may dip here and there. I hope you'll be patient and bear with me as I work those sorts of things out. I'll try to go back and edit every Friday. Expect updates every Monday, though that amount may increase or decrease depending on what I've got going on in my life at the moment. There also might be some "creative discretions" made here or there for the sake of making the writing easier on me. You might notice one off the bat if you're a rabid Drakengard fan (or just go watch Ending E again, heh).

Thank you, and I hope you enjoy reading

Grimoire Crusade.

 **June 12, 2003**

It was 2:58 when the dragon appeared in Shinjuku, Tokyo.

Yamato Iida knew this because he was looking at his watch when it happened. He was checking to see if he'd make it to the E line for his transfer to Ikebukuro on time when he saw it.

Well, _them_ , if we're going to be exact. The only reason he saw the dragon first was because of its lustrous red scales. They shone against the sun, making Iida think that it was just another plane landing in Narita, at first. It was only when it flapped its wings that Iida realized what he was looking at.

As his brain attempted to process the existence of a being that, based on everything we understood about the known world, definitively _should not_ exist, Iida was greeted with yet another curious sight. The moody grey clouds that had stubbornly clung to Japan's sky for the day parted in a circle, and from within, a giant grey woman, seemingly made out of clay, fell through it.

"This is strange," Iida could only think, before the woman made impact with the earth. It crushed the buildings it landed on as if they were twigs. A second afterwards, Iida felt the aftershock beneath his feet, and he was knocked onto his behind, along with everyone else on the sidewalk. He could hear shouts and screams as the rest of the world caught up with him, recognizing what was going on.

Dust and debris flitted through the air around Iida a moment later. He could only imagine what the damage was like at the epicenter of the crash. From where he sat, he could see that the giant woman was formed from the middle up, with no legs present.

The people around Iida rushed this way and that as they attempted to escape. He couldn't help but chuckle to himself. Where would they go? What would they do, in the face of such...strangeness?

 _Although, perhaps I'm being a bit strange myself_ , Iida thought. Shouldn't he be panicking more? Sure, he was single, and work took up most of his life. But he should still have felt that urge to survive that all organisms felt, deep within their cores, right?

Before he could consider his own humanity further, Iida was lifted up by his arms. He looked up to see an Emergency Worker helping him to his feet, shouting at him to follow everyone else to evacuation. Rather than comply, Iida took another look at the giant woman and the shining red dragon. The dragon was roaring at the statue - a roar so powerful, Iida could feel it in his chest, as its volume and intensity washed over the sounds of sirens and screams. As it did so, orbs of black and white energy burst from its maw, blasting into the statue and knocking pieces out of it.

 _They're...fighting?_ Iida wondered to himself. He couldn't examine the battle any longer, however. The Emergency Worker was now pushing him towards the evacuation line, yelling at him all the while. Iida nodded his consent, and left to join the evacuation, only stopping to bend over and cough into his hands.

 _Crap. Must have gotten some of the dust into my lungs._

* * *

It was 4:00 when the giant woman fell.

Kane Makino knew this because he had just been briefed during an emergency committee meeting of the Japan Self-Defense Force. In a word, everyone was panicked.

They had no idea what was going on. How could they? Dragons, giant statue women, what looked like magic being shot out in the sky? No amount of training could have prepared the SDF for this. Makino knew that _he_ wasn't ready for something like this, that was for sure. He was in the middle of his afternoon workout when the siren went off. It was only when he took a glance at the TV that he realized what was going on.

At 4:00, he and several other members of the SDF saw the giant woman disintegrate on TV. Whatever that dragon had done, it was enough to destroy the thing. Makino wanted to cheer, but he wasn't sure if they were winners in this case.

Before he could ponder the predicament further, he felt a hand clasp his shoulder. It was another member of the SDF.

"With that giant...thing gone, we're going out to help with evacuation and to see if anyone survived that impact. Get ready to move out."

Makino nodded. _How ready could I actually be ready?_ he asked himself yet again.

But he knew better than to say it out loud.

* * *

It was 4:02 when the dragon fell.

Haru Watabe knew this because he was the one that shot it down.

He was known amongst the other members of the Self-Defence Force as Scarface, of the 6th Air Wing, 303rd Squadron. He hadn't seen combat, but he was the best pilot in his crew. This was why he was chosen to take the shot.

Not that it ended up being very difficult. The thing was just...floating there, after destroying the giant woman. For a fraction of a second, Watabe wondered of the dragon's sentience. If it could think, or feel, perhaps even talk.

For another fraction of a second, Watabe thought he saw a man sitting atop the dragon.

By the end of that second, he had readied his weapon, aimed, and fired.

The missile was a direct hit. Watabe zoomed past his target, seeing only flames and ashes. Then, the body of a flying lizard, careening towards the earth. He let out a sigh, before turning on his radio.

"This is Bravo-1. Unidentified target has been neutralized. Over and out."

With that, Watabe settled into the cockpit and sighed. _I'm hugging my kid extra hard today_ , he thought to himself. He turned his jet back towards the Self-Defence Force base.

* * *

This was the "6-12 Incident." 56 deaths were confirmed. 320 injuries were sustained. 60 Billion in Yen, blown into ashes like that of the giant woman and red dragon that appeared in Shinjuku that day. Despite efforts by the Japanese Government, news of the event leaked throughout the world. Some believed it was the cause of terrorists. Others, a foreign plot to take down Japan.

They were wrong.

The alternative was much, much worse.


	2. Chapter 1: Kota's Cries

**December 25, 2003**

Koto Makino was five years old when her father was turned into salt.

Even as a child, she had realized that her father was sick. He had an uncontrollable cough, and it never seemed to go away. He would always tell her that he was alright, but she knew that he wasn't. She couldn't understand much, other than that a few months ago, he helped people, and helping people was what made him sick.

This part made the least sense to Koto. _Why help people if it hurts you?_ she thought to herself, in the limiting, unintentional way that children do. Helping people was supposed to be good. This was what she was taught in school. And yet, here her father was, being punished for doing the right thing.

Koto was in her room playing with her stuffed animals when she heard the crash in the living room. She hopped down to the floor from her bed, too short to simply step off of it, and ran towards the sound of the commotion, the little _thumps_ of her tiny feet echoing off of the wooden floor.

She saw her father, collapsed in the kitchen. "Dad!" she shouted, running up to him.

"I'm alright, honey," her father said.

These were his last words.

Koto reached out to his hand - or rather, where his hand was meant to be. In its place was a lump of white salt. Before she could react, her father, Kane Makino, was chlorinated completely.

Koto stared at where her father was moments before. She palmed at the white crystals in front of her, as though if she simply kept sorting it about, she might be able to place her father back together. That failing, she cried.

At first, they were small sobs. But soon, the young girl was wailing, tears streaming down her face and her lungs threatening to explode out of her chest. So it went, for what felt like an eternity.

She could taste the salt on her lips, but she tried not to swallow.

Eventually, Kota's cries were heard by a woman in the neighboring apartment, who called the emergency number when she couldn't find the girl's father, and the girl herself inconsolable. The woman wondered where the salt came from, unconsciously dipping her finger into the pile as she thought to herself.

Men from the Self-Defense Force showed up some time later. Kota recognized some of them from the times that her father had brought them over to drink and watch baseball. Their eyes were downcast. It seemed as if none of them could bring themselves to look at Kota.

Soon after that, men in black suits appeared. At this point, Kota didn't care _who_ was in the house. She was curled up on the couch, oblivious to the numerous people in the apartment talking amongst themselves.

 _Why are they talking so much?_

Why aren't they helping?

Why won't they bring dad back?

One of the men in black suits stood in front of Kota. She looked up at him, hoping she could will him into leaving her alone. The man crouched down to meet her at eye level. There was a kindness in his eyes that she wasn't expecting.

"I'm sorry about what happened," he said, the softness in his voice warming Kota back up, if only slightly. Her lip trembled.

"We're going to take you somewhere safe," the man continued. "And we're going to figure out what happened to your father so that it doesn't happen again."

Kota could only nod. That was what you were supposed to do. Help people. But a nagging voice at the back of her head wouldn't go away.

 _That won't bring my dad back._

The man reached out his hand, offering it to Kota. She hesitated, before grabbing it, and being gently pulled off of the couch. The man continued to hold Kota's hand as he walked them towards the house's exit.

"I'm taking her to research facility," the man said to another man in the same black suit. This one was bald, and hard sharp eyes that contrasted to those of the man holding Kota's hand. These sharp eyes were adorned with large eyebrows, which were now furrowed in Kota's direction.

"We can't do that, Akihisa! That's no place for a child!"

"We have a duty to this girl," the man said back, his voice quiet but firm. "We needed to stop this. We needed to try our absolute hardest to stop this. And we didn't. We failed this girl, and she is our responsibility as a result."

The bald man glowered, but said nothing.

"I will take care of her myself," Akihisa continued. "Cut her living expenses out of my paycheck, if you must. But I will not abandon her. If we stoop so low, then humanity itself should turn to salt."

The bald man finally barked back. "Save the poetry for your diary, Akihisa!" he shouted, causing others in the house to stare at him for a moment. "If you want to take her, fine," he continued, quieter. "But keep her out of my sight. Children are bothersome. Doubly so in a damn research facility."

"As you wish," Akihisa said. He looked down at Kota. "Let's back your things," he said to her, giving his best reassuring smile.

In that fraction of a second, Kota felt a small light of hope grow in her chest.

It would be the last time she felt that hope.

* * *

 _Author's note: phew! Poor Kota. But such is the world of Nier: where good people get screwed over. Let it be known that it's only gonna get worse from here on out._

 _From now on time jumps will occur from chapter to chapter. The_ prologue _made it easy to time-jump as everything occurs on June 13th, but things will be skipping across years from here. There's a lot to cover, and I worry that jumping through time multiple times through one chapter will cause one of two things to happen: either it gets too confusing too fast, or I don't leave enough time for world building because chapters end up being too long._

 _That's my thought process! Hope to see you_ at _the next chapter._


	3. Chapter 2: The Wall of Jericho

**February 14th, 2008**

Eva Hechler was 12 when the Wall of Jericho fell.

Her mother was on a business trip in Japan, and Eva was doing everything in her power to convince her mother to let her come along.

"You're only there for the weekend, so I won't miss any school! And I'll do my Monday and Friday homework early, so I won't have to catch up at all! _Please_ , mom?"

Eva's mother sighed and relented, on the condition that her daughter would be on her absolute best behavior. The following morning, the two were on a flight from Germany to Japan.

In retrospect, Eva thought, her mother had made a risky decision in bringing her daughter to the country. Ever since the event five years ago, and the arrival of White Chlorination Syndrome, Japan had been in a constant state of turmoil. Shinjuku was in ruins. An innumerable amount of people had been infected with the disease, and there was no cure on the horizon, as far as the public knew.

And although the government had been trying to keep it under raps, the world soon found out that some infected people in Shinjuku were going "berserk" instead of turning into salt. These people instead become increasingly violent. The best comparison would be that of a rabid animal.

Because of these events, the Japanese government ruled to erect a wall around Shinjuku, dubbed "the Wall of Jericho." This was a preventative measure, but it ledto great criticism from the public. Regardless, the wall was built, and some form of stabilization was made in Japan, as officials worked nonstop to find a cure that would counter the outbreak.

Perhaps this was why Eva's mother was so inclined to allow her daughter to join her on her trip.

This would be a mistake.

Eva and her mother were drinking coffee at a cafe after a successful business meeting. Eva didn't know what business her mother did, only that it was of relative importance - she knew that much because of the large, suited men that always surrounded them when her mother went about her work. They couldn't have been a half mile away from the Wall.

As Eva reached for another sip from her drink, the entire cafe shook, and her cup crashed to the floor. A piercing sound followed afterwards, and Eva's eyes widened in shock.

This was the same sound the Giant Woman had made, all those years ago. Even though Eva was only seven years old when she had seen the leaked footage, the scream continued to haunt her long after the fact.

The two large men that were with Eva and her mother reacted quicker than anyone else in the cafe. They each swiftly swooped up the mother and daughter pair and began to rush them out of the cafe and out onto the street.

This, too, would be a mistake.

As Eva was pushed out into the city streets, she could see them. A swarm of white monsters, pouring into the street from the direction of the Wall of Jericho. They came in many shapes and sizes, some with claws, others more humanoid in appearance, and some still that flew. They were headed straight towards Eva and the rest of the group.

Eva screamed.

The two men that accompanied Eva and her mother pulled guns out from their pockets and began firing at the monsters. The shots rung clear over the sounds of screams from bystanders and inhuman snarls from the white monsters. As the two men poured clip after clip into the beasts, Eva could only, at the time, wonder how the two men were able to bring weapons into the country.

The thought would only last a moment, however, as the men were tackled by two of the beasts. Before Eva could see what happened to them, her mother had grabbed her, forcing them to run.

And so they did. Eva's lungs were on fire, and she had no idea what was keeping her running. Her mother had discarded the high-heels she was wearing, and her feet were bruised from the full on sprint they made into the city.

The two stopped to take a breath in a quiet alleyway. They could hear the sounds of paramedic vehicles, of glass shattering, and car alarms incessantly blaring. Eva's mom suddenly grabbed her by the shoulder.

"Eva, listen to me. Take this." She handed Eva a necklace, but rather than jewelry, a flash drive was connected to the end of it.

"Wha...?" Eva attempted to ask, but her mother cut her off.

"No matter what happens, keep that flash drive safe, Eva. When this is over, your Grandfather will find you. He'll know what to do with it, so give it to him. But you _can not_ lose it, Eva. Do you understand? Do you understand!" her mother repeated, shouting to rouse Eva out of her shock. Tears streamed down her face as she nodded.

"Good. Good girl." She hugged her daughter fiercely. "Now, hide in here." With that, she shoved the little girl into a small space in the alleyway.

"But...you can't fit in here!" Eva said. "We have to hide somewhere else!"

"I know I can't fit in there, Eva," her mother replied, smiling. "Now, stay very quiet, okay?"

With that, her mother ran from the alleyway.

Eva attempted to choke back her sobs. She understood what her mother had done, and she understood why. But she didn't want it to be true.

The snarls of the white monsters nearby struck her into silence. She held her breath, as she could see the pale, scaled feet of the beasts stalking past the space. Eva shoved herself further back into the hole, willing herself smaller as she did so. She threw the flash drive into her pocket in the meanwhile.

A face leaned down at the space, looking directly at her. For a second time, Eva screamed.

It was another of the white monsters. This one was the most human-like she had seen, only missing a mouth and nose. But this one was different from the others. It had one piercing red eye. The face continued to stare at Eva, who had herself continued to scream, abandoning all pretense of stealth at this point.

And then, without warning, it simply rose to its feet and walked away, the monsters following behind it. She heard it yell something of a command, and then there was silence.

Eva continued to hide in the alleyway for hours afterwards. She had no way of knowing if the crisis was over, but she was too afraid to check. Her stomach, to her shame, was growling in protest, and her eyes burned as she willed herself not to sleep.

The sounds of men and women shouting in the distance put Eva on alert once again. She strained her ears, trying to discern whether the shouts were those of assistance or terror.

"Is anyone out there?"

 _I am_.

"I am!" Eva shouted, scrambling out of her hiding space.

"I am!"

"I am!"

Eva sprinted out onto the streets, seeing a group of women from the Self-Defence Force. Before any of them could react, she clung to the nearest one, sobbing, as the events of the day began to catch up with her.

"Are you with anyone?" the woman asked. "Where are your parents?"

Eva looked up at the woman with tearstained eyes. "They're gone," she said.

Her voice was hollow.

* * *

This was the fall of the Wall of Jericho. The white monsters that poured out of the wall that day would come to be known as the Legion. Their leader:

Red Eye.


End file.
